“Fine. I need to check in with the sheriff, and then we’ll be on our way.”
He slipped out of the car and closed the door gently, so as not to shake her up further. Katie seemed to be made of tough stuff, but everyone had a limit to their endurance. The slamming of the heavy car door would only add to her jitteriness.
The scene in and around the cabin was intense and busy, but that was the way Adam liked his work. He leaned against the driver’s side door and pulled his pocketknife and a small piece of wood out of his pocket. Whittling helped him think, and right now he especially needed to concentrate. A ring of smugglers out of Chicago had expanded, ICE believed, toward Cincinnati. That would take them right through the Amish communities of Northern Indiana. He hadn’t had much success in his investigation thus far, and now this Amish woman landed right in the middle. What should he think about it? Where did she fit?
“Troyer!” Sheriff Moore, a man with a thick torso and a jovial demeanor, sauntered toward him. The sheriff’s easygoing attitude seemed to be appreciated by the Amish, who apparently had had some difficulty with their last sheriff, but he was a little too laid-back for Adam’s preference. Still, the man was well-liked and got the job done. “Find out anything?” He nodded his head toward Katie in the SUV.
“Not much. You know her?” Adam took a few steps toward the sheriff as he scraped his knife over the little piece of wood. It would soon be a squirrel, a twin to the one that already resided in his pocket.
“No. Haven’t met her yet.”
“She says she’s friends with a Sarah and Jedediah Miller. Says Jed’s former law enforcement from Fort Wayne.”
“Yeah, he’s out of it now. Decided he wanted the plain life.”
“How’d he end up Amish?” Adam could appreciate a lack of complication as much as the next guy, but leaving electricity behind seemed a little drastic. Why couldn’t he just have a sticky bun with his Saturday-morning coffee and old-fashioned newspaper?
“From what I’ve heard, he was working undercover and about to testify against a ring of counterfeiters when he was found out. Had a snowmobile accident, hit his head on a rock and woke up with amnesia. Sarah found him and took care of him. He’s fine now. A real upstanding guy.” The sheriff swiped a hand across his brow and adjusted his hat.
The more he heard, the more Adam thought Katie’s story was legitimate. There didn’t seem to be any other way to explain her presence at the cabin. If her brother was involved in whatever nefarious activity was occurring in the area, she could be a helpful asset. She certainly seemed concerned enough about her brother, despite his wayward ways. He had to take her home anyway, so he’d have a few words with this Jed.
Adam nodded back toward his SUV. “The bullet grazed her leg, so she won’t be riding her bike anytime soon. I’ll take her to her friends’ house to pick up her twins and see if I can get a private word with Jed.”
“He’ll tell you what he can.” The sheriff plucked a long piece of foxtail grass and stuck the stem between his teeth.
“Good. I’d appreciate being kept in the loop with what you find here.”
“We don’t hope for much. So far we’ve pulled a bullet out of a tree trunk. We’ll look for a match, but I’m doubtful at being able to find the weapon. I’ll keep in touch.”
“Thanks.” Adam turned back to the Tahoe, determined to get a little more of Katie’s story from another law enforcement officer, even if he was Amish now.
As the crow flies, the drive would probably have been only a few minutes, and that certainly would have been safer. But the back roads through the hills and hollows of Northern Indiana Amish country took a bit more of a winding route. Adam found he couldn’t get over thirty miles per hour in most stretches. Slowing down for a couple of buggies didn’t help either.
The painfully slow speed also didn’t help his anxiety at the shooter still being on the loose. Would he come back for Katie? Why was he shooting at her in the first place? Would he go after a law enforcement officer? Some criminals did, and some didn’t. Adam just didn’t know enough about who this shooter might be to be able to determine his probable next move.
He tore his attention from the rearview mirror and checked both side mirrors. Through the drive, all had been clear. As he crested a hill, an Amish homestead came into view.
“There. On the right.” Katie leaned forward as if it would help her get to her children faster, her hand on the cane.
The property wasn’t large, but the whitewashed house was sizeable, the barn a cheerful red. Colorful flowers—marigolds, maybe—dotted the edge of the house and the barn. A large vegetable garden filled a back corner. As he approached, a malamute bounded forward, tail wagging and tongue lolling.
Memories of childhood time spent with Amish grandparents struggled to free themselves from the dusty corners of his mind. His grossmammi with a plate full of oatmeal cookies and a pitcher of warm milk that was fresh from their dairy cow. His grossdaadi sitting on the porch, showing him the finer points of whittling, while his cousins swung from the hayloft. Adam swallowed hard and shoved the memories back to their places. His father’s rumspringa and continuing alcoholism had altered not only his father’s life but the lives of his future children, as well. And after his father’s and brother’s untimely deaths in the automobile accident, those remembrances didn’t deserve the freedom to roam unhindered through his thoughts. The only way to assuage the grief was to maintain his laser-like focus on his job and the justice for victims that he sought every day.
Adam pulled into the lane, and a man emerged from the house, placing a straw hat on his head as he approached the vehicle. Adam opened the car door and hopped out. He smiled as warmly as he could and raised a hand in greeting, palm open and facing out, as he jogged around the front of the Tahoe. The man’s countenance was expressionless until Adam helped Katie down from the SUV. As she emerged from behind the door, a wide smile split the man’s face, and a woman with three girls, all in identical blue Amish dresses and white starched prayer kapps, stepped out of the house.
“Katie, are you all right?”
“Jah, Jed.” She leaned heavily on Adam’s forearm. Grasping the cane, she stepped toward Jed but still held on to Adam’s arm.
The woman who must have been Sarah flew toward them. The three girls followed on her heels, all chattering at once.
“Ach, Katie! Where have you been? You are injured!”
“Mamm! Are you all right?”
“What happened, Mamm?”
Sarah frowned in Adam’s direction and took Katie’s arm from him as twin girls threw their arms around Katie’s waist. Both had the same shade of dark blond hair and the same pert nose, although one appeared to have a few more freckles than the other. Adorable seemed too blasé of a word to describe them.
“Liebchen! My loves!” Katie smiled broadly and shrugged at Adam as she tried to hug both twins with Sarah hanging on. “I will be fine, Sarah. I will tell you everything inside.”
He felt himself begin to trust her a little bit more as he observed Katie’s affection for her girls. She gently pulled her arm from Sarah, and, leaning on the cane, she tucked a stray hair back into one girl’s kapp and then ran her finger down the cheek of the other girl. A smile played about her lips as she seemed to relax. With a reflex honed from training and experience, Adam glanced around the yard and down the lane to make sure all was quiet. Then he stepped toward Jed.
“You must be Jedediah Miller. Sheriff Moore told me you’re retired from Fort Wayne PD.” He extended his hand, and they shook. “I’m Adam Troyer,